1. On 19th August, 2020 rule nisi has been issued in this petition. Thereafter, submissions were heard from time to time on the prayer for interim relief. The submissions were lastly heard on 17th December, 2020 and order was reserved.

2. The issue in this writ petition concerns Aarogya Setu application (for short, 'the Aarogya Setu app') introduced by the Government of India after the nationwide lockdown was announced by the Hon'ble Prime Minister on 24th March, 2020. The National Informatics Centre ('NIC' for short) - seventh respondent launched the Aarogya Setu app on 2nd April, 2020 which is stated to have been downloaded by more than one hundred million users. One of the issues involved is whether the Government of India has a right to use the personal data of Aarogya Setu app users on the app and whether it can transfer / share the data without obtaining the informed consent of the users. On 1st May, 2020, an order was made by the Union Home Secretary, the Ministry of Home Affairs, in his capacity as the Chairperson of the National Executive Committee of the National Disaster Management Authority (for short, 'the NDMA') under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (for short, 'th